Tampa Bay Monarch for good

[MilkeweedEater]

Hi Monarch Watch i am Michael A. An 11 year who cares about monarchs ive been listing my monarch life for the past month and now i am changing my town 1 step at a time i have order 250 tropical milkweed seeds . Currently 4 caterpillars are resting one the 2 live trop. milkweed 1-4th instar 3-3 instars. I have 17 seeds alrdy in cups rdy 2 sprout. 2 are going 2 my teacher because she said every year monarchs bang on her window 4 food because a monarch was reales there so there desendets come there im donating 1 2 each elemntry school in my aera. monarchs will fluter in tampa till the day i die!!!!!!

[Mona Miller]

Live long and prosper, you and the Tampa, FL Monarch population. May your wonderful efforts be an inspiration to us all!

[MilkeweedEater]

1 class at my school is going to see the caterpillars on monday the 30th and the 25th i showed my tkd school the owners faimly had seen the caterpillars for a long time !!!!!

[MilkeweedEater]

4 caterpillar to 3 caterpillars on died of oe shivled up all black poor guy

[Mona Miller]

There are several diseases that could cause a caterpillar to turn black and die. One is simply called "Black Death", the scientific name is Pseudomonas Bacteria.

At this point, I would recommend sterilizing a new container and moving them. This disease could still be in your container. You can use that container again, if you sterilize it with a 20% bleach solution. 80% water and 20% bleach. The containers need to be thoroughly rinsed after using bleach--bleach residue can kill them, too.

You should wash your hands with soap and rinse thorough before taking care of caterpillars and afterwards, too.

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/butt ... 31715.html
Why does a Monarch caterpillar or chrysalis turn black?
"The main way to help prevent either disease is to keep the rearing containers DRY. Warm, moist environments promote the growth and spread of the bacterial and viral 'predators' and cause unclean conditions. "

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/butt ... 14581.html
Important Info RE OE & Monarchs!

http://www.evansonart.com/monarchdisease.html
Several diseases and photographs of those diseases.

http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/07/d ... spore.html
http://www.learnaboutmonarchs.com/learn ... spore.html

http://www.uga.edu/monarchparasites/whatisOE/index.html
How to tell if butterflies are infected with OE
"An infected pupa may develop dark spots or blotches two or three days before the butterfly emerges. These abnormal dark areas are parasite spores. Spores form on the eyes, antennae, wing veins, but mostly on the abdomen. You can see the spores through the outside layer of the pupa a day or two before pigments that color the butterfly normally darken the pupa. Before a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, pigments are laid down coloring the scales that cover the butterfly. This normal change in the color of the pupa is symmetrical. The color change of an infected monarch happens earlier and does not create a balanced pattern on the pupa."

[MilkeweedEater]

Ok im going to water bleach the cage with half a cup of bleach and 5 cups of water then wash it out for a long time : The prestiation consit of the 3 reaming caterpillar one of them is an inch long others are smaller but i put my finger down in there cage they climb on to me. 1 8x11 poster used coumputer for desiging it, a stage's of monarchs presitation, 1 milkweed plant ( for my teacher ) and 1 pack of live monarch seed pack for showing and seed instructions ( if my mom alows me ill give each student a seeds.

[Mona Miller]

Wear gloves (plastic) and put on safety glasses (eye wear) when using bleach.

[MilkeweedEater]

Dont have that stuff i do my own laundry and do the whites at my house so i handel bleach ok i dont use my bare hands i use a soft sponge and then use shower on the facutet to do that and tomoro i have to leave my house at 8:00 am becasuse i live 5 blocks dosnt mean it take a while vern while scotering

[Mona Miller]

You shouldn't handle bleach with your hands. It goes into the skin and is not safe. Have you noticed how your hands feel slippery when you get bleach on them?

[MilkeweedEater]

not realy be cause i took a bath befor i di this so my hnads where very moist

[MilkeweedEater]

my current school had a grant 2 years ago fr monarchs every teacher got a 1 pupa & milkweed plant and a school dedicated a garden for them will 1 year ago it was cut down by the lawn service people because they don't care any ways so all of it was cut down that 25/30 milkweed plants so i took one of the plastic 2 ft by 1 ft storage bens filled it half way with seed starting soil and for some reason 5 lines of 5 seeds per line fit it so one pack of my seeds went in it all of that goes to the middle school and 4 plants to the neighboring elem school so they will have 5 because they already have 1. 2 to the school next to my apartment 2 to the church school down the block and i still have 3 bags of soil and no conatinors for seeds i ran out of plastc cup so where reusing bens and my mom says don't plant all because we might be moving to lower Florida then this will become monarchs for Floridia i have a website and have 2 pages done still working the store glitch on it for the uniform i made one shirt store in California so they ship to them the cost is $30 because the real price is 28.99 no tax then we get 1 dollar for uses in less i want to use vista ***** but then the colors are only black and white..... so that what Ive done this weekend

[Mona Miller]

I am trying to read between the lines, but some of what you are writing I do not understand. Good luck with all your Monarch adventures.